The Oneness Project at Nestor Language Academy Charter School was intended to help the school’s eighth graders think beyond themselves.

“Part of the school culture is to really think about others and how we can affect the community and the world itself,” said Irene Perez, a seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher at the school and coordinator of the project, which requires the students to complete a community service project during their final year at Nestor.

The school, located in San Diego’s Nestor neighborhood, teaches kindergarten through eighth grade and is a dual language immersion program, with instruction progressing from primarily Spanish in the early grades, to equal time in Spanish and English during the final years.

This year’s eighth-graders were the school’s first, and learned of the project during their seventh grade year so that they could start thinking about possible projects. They had to submit an application, statement of purpose for their projects, complete a research report related either to the organization they worked with or the issue they worked on, serve 10 hours of documented volunteer time outside of their research and preparation, incorporate a media presentation, a letter explaining why they chose a particular project, and give an oral presentation to parents at the end of the year.

Some students began early, even though their hours wouldn’t be counted until after the application had been turned in. Projects included a student who organized a toy and clothing drive for orphans in Tijuana; a student who volunteered at a clinic for autistic children; another student helped battered women at a local shelter; some students organized a bone marrow drive at the school; and some who helped the school’s librarian or janitor.

“They were really taking in a lot,” Perez said. “As I was reading through all of these papers, I was thinking, ‘These students really learned a lot. This is really exciting.’”

They learned about various social and environmental, about helping others, and they also learned about themselves. Perez noticed them gain confidence because of having to approach adults and be taken seriously. The student who worked with battered women became more interested in the issues they face, writing to the governor about it. A student who helped the janitor gained a new appreciation for the work after noticing how messy he and his schoolmates are.

For Perez, it’s important that the students learn to have compassion for others, and to think about how each of their decisions will affect someone else.

“Maybe it will just be one person. Maybe it will be five or 10, but everything that I do, I should think, ‘How will it affect others?’ And I think all of my students should keep that in mind,” she said. “Start thinking, ‘OK, now what am I going to do? How can I help the rest of my team? The rest of my school? My community?’”